Providence police break up underage party at Louie’s Tavern

Amanda Milkovits Journal Staff Writer amandamilkovits

Tuesday

Dec 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — At Louie’s Tavern, the reputation for underage drinking is older than the teens who the police say were caught drinking there late last week. After getting word over social media about an...

PROVIDENCE — At Louie’s Tavern, the reputation for underage drinking is older than the teens who the police say were caught drinking there late last week.

After getting word over social media about an underage party at the bar on 597 Douglas Ave., the police crashed it late Friday night.

As license officers Sgt. David Tejada and Detective Joseph Amoroso walked in, people in the crowd yelled that the police were there. They dropped their drinks and ran, but not before the officers caught some of the teenagers with alcohol, said Maj. David Lapatin.

Three 17-year-old boys and 19-year-old Nicole E. Matarese were holding bottles of Bud Light near the bar, and 18-year-old John N. Antirose Jr. was drinking beer from a pitcher by the front door, according to the police. Nearly all of the others, who were fleeing the bar, appeared to be under 21, Lapatin said.

Antirose and Matarese were charged with underage possession of alcohol and released to appear at District Court on Feb. 13. The 17-year-old boys were sent home with one of their mothers.

The owner, Joseph Marasco III, was tending bar and told the police that all of the customers were checked for ID and had to be at least 18 to enter.

But the police found that none of the 17-year-olds had IDs, and the teens told the police that no one asked to see any identification.

Lapatin said the police will take Louie’s Tavern before the city license board for violations. It will be the sixth time in the less than two years since Marasco took over the bar, as “Team Marasco LLC.”

Marasco, a former assistant manager at Jerky’s, had pledged to the license board at the time that “we’re just going to put up a simple beverage menu and be productive members of the community.”

But license records show the bar has been fined a total of $3,450 and ordered closed for five days since March 2012, primarily for underage drinking. The last action was Dec. 4, when the license board fined the bar $750 for underage-drinking violations.

Marasco didn’t return a call from The Journal left on his cellphone Monday afternoon.

He took over the bar from Bruce Coppola, who still owns the building and the mortgage, according to city records.

Under Coppola, Louie’s Tavern or “Louie’s Tap,” came before the license board numerous times over the years for multiple underage-drinking arrests and advertising drink specials.

The bar hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing.

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